Washington, D.C. —  Today the Block the Merger coalition, which includes Economic Liberties, released an open letter signed by more than 1,000 actors, directors, writers and film professionals opposing the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The letter warns the deal would further consolidate an already strained industry, reducing competition, jobs, creative opportunities, and consumer choice, and urges state regulators to block it.

“Consolidation in Hollywood has been a disaster, and has led to the weak state of the industry. If we want to continue to even have a TV or film industry, this merger needs to be blocked,” said Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Not only does this kind of concentration hollow out creative markets, it concentrates control over culture and information in the hands of a few unaccountable executives, and in this case totalitarian Gulf countries, undermining a free and pluralistic media ecosystem that democracy depends on.”

Among the featured signatories to the letter are Mark Ruffalo, Ben Stiller, Kristen Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Jane Fonda, Noah Wyle, Tiffany Haddish, and Denis Villeneuve.

The proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery poses a serious anticompetitive challenge to America’s entertainment industry, threatening to reduce the number of movie studios from five to four, combine the fourth and fifth largest streaming services, consolidate two major television studios and news networks, bring two video game studios under the same roof, and create a sports “superpower” by combining CBS sports and TNT sports. 

Prior Hollywood mergers have been notable failures, leading to reduced profits, multiple rounds of layoffs, and less output. For example, after Disney purchased Fox in 2019, movie output for the combined firm fell by almost 50%. This reduced output hasn’t just hit jobs in Hollywood, but also at theaters across the country that are increasingly having trouble sourcing enough product to remain viable. If this illegal deal is allowed to go through, Paramount has already pledged ‘synergies’ of $6 billion, which likely means laying off roughly 20 to 40% of the combined company workforce. For context, following the Skydance-Paramount acquisition, the combined company shed 10% of its workforce, cut $2 billion in costs, and cancelled a number of programs. 

Read the open letter on behalf of Hollywood actors, directors, writers and filmmakers here.

Read Economic Liberties’ breakdown of the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.